Knitted garment



Nov. 5, 1940. w. E. RALsToN KNITTED GARMENT Filed sept. 24, i938" 2Sheets-Sheet 1 lA90 do! N VB NTOQJ @Mv/ey ,6 /Qa/s/O CMM,

CTTorLNEpfS Patented Nov. 5, 1940 UNITED STATES PATENT oi-FICE 12claims.

The invention relates to knitted garments and more particularly to menstrunks such as are used for swimming or for under garments.

One object of the invention is to provide a novel 5 pair of knittedtrunks having a reinforcing section knit into the front of the trunks asan integral part thereof and constituting a supporter. l Another objectof the invention is to provide a novel pair of knitted trunks embodyinga reinforced waist band and supporter loop extending through the crotchof the trunks and having the lower selvage edges of the trunk legsinclined at the proper angle relative to the waist band.

The invention also resides in novel features of construction whichimpart shape and rein' forcement to the trunks and enable the same to tthe wearers body nicely.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent asthe following description proceeds, taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings in which Figure 1 shows a pair of trunks embodyingthe invention in place on a wearer.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the pair of trunks of Fig. 1.

Figs. 3 and 4 are-respectively top and front elevations of the trunks.

Figs 5 and 6 are respectively vertical sectional views along the lines5-5 and 6-6 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 7 is an enlargedfragmentary view Of a portion of the trunk fabric.

Fig. 8 is a fragmentary view of the crotch portion of a modified form ofthe trunks.

The invention has been shown herein as applied to a pair of mens bathingtrunks, but it will be apparent that the invention is,'in certain of itsaspects, also applicable to other types of knitted garments. Theparticular pair of trunks chosen for illustration of the inventionembodies similarly shaped front and rear pieces I and II of knit fabric,each having a straight upper selvage edge I2, side edges generallyperpendicular to the upper edge, and lower selvage edge portions I3 andI4 converging downwardly and inwardly to a central edge portion Iparalleling the upper edge I2 in the form of the invention shown in Fig.4. Each front and rear section is knit as integral pieces of fabric andmay, as shown in the present instance, be knit together integrally atone side edge. The other side edges are sewed together to form a compactseam I6 along the other hip. To complete the trunks, the central edgeportions I5 are sewed together at a similar crotch seam I1. Theinclination of (Cl. (i6-176) or waist edge is such as to impart propershape to the legs of the trunks.

y The front and rear pieces Ill and II of the trunks are of generallysimilar shape although the rear piece is preferably somewhat wider. Infashioning the front piece III, for example,`the knitting is startedwith a course of stitches or loops at one side edge of` the garment andthe -knitting carried on in continuous wales across the entire frontportion of the garment. Preferably, though not necessarily, full or halfcardigan stitches are employed depending on the elastic characteristicsdesired. Worsted or any other desired type of yarn may be employed.

The invention contemplates reinforcement of selected portions of thefront and rear pieces I0 and I I so as to form a straight elastic waistband I8 along the upper edges I2 and a band I9 prei'- erably extendingfrom the waist band I8 downwardly through the crotch and then upwardlyalong the center of the rear piece to the rear of the waist band. Toassist in retaining the desired shape of the legs of the trunks, it maybe desirable to provide narrow reinforcing bands 20 paralleling thesupporter band and extending along each side edge of the front and rearpieces. For purposes of design or shaping, additional narrow reinforcingstrips 2I may be knit in adjacent but spaced from the supporter band.The parts 22 and 23 of the front and rear pieces between the reinforcingbands extending downwardly from the Waist band and terminating at theedge portions I3 and I4 are not reinforced and therefore are looser soas to stretch re'adilyand conform to the contour of the wearers' body.

In the form shown in Fig. 4, the wales of the reinforced sections extendhorizontally and parallel the selvage edge I2 constituting the upperedge of the waist band. Inxthe other sections 22 and 23, the wales areinclined slightly as indicated by the shading in Fig-4 so'that theselvage edges I3 and I4 will define the lower end of the trunk legs.Cutting and seaming of the fabric to shape the legs is thus avoided.

Such inclination of the wales is effected by an operation known inknitting as knee-racking. One form of flat knitting machine by whichthis may be accomplished forms the subject matter Jof my copendingapplication Serial No. 238,837 filed Nov. 4, 1938. As therein disclosed,the bank of needles by which the sections 22 and 23 are formed areracked in the course of knitting relative to the remaining needlesknitting the waist band. The effect of such racking is to form theracking so as to form a straightselvaged edge I3 which diverges from thewaist band. By racking in the reverse direction, 4 the. reverseinclination of the edge I4 is obtained. The reinforcing bands I9, 20 and2I are formedby knitting in l of the trunk legs, the effect of theracking operation is to produce a substantial amount of fullnessindicated at 25 (Fig. 2) in the unreinforced portions. This fills outand conforms readily to the wearers body thereby contributing to thenicety of fit of the garment.

Reinforcement of the fabric to form the waist, supporter, and side bandsI8, I9, and-20 may be effected in various ways as, for example, by usingdifferent Weights of yarn in different sections as by using elastic yarnin knitting the reinforced section and worsted yarn in the othersections.v

It is preferred, however, to obtain somewhat greater reinforcement byusing one yarn 26 (Fig. 8) throughout the front and rear pieces andadding elastic yarn 21 selectively in the sections which are to bereinforced. Such yarn includes a rubber strand encased in fine cotton,

silk, worsted, or other threads. A characteristic."

full cardigan stitch coresponding to the area en` closed by dotted linesin Fig. 4 is shown on a magnified scale in Fig. 7. This also illustratesthe effect of the racking operation above described.

Since the main supporting action isy produced by the band I9 in thefront piece I0, the band in the rear piece may, in order to" reduce yarncosts and lessen the weight of the trunks, .be reinforced to a lesserdegree. This may be effected by adding reinforcing yarn21 in alternateor even in every third or fourth round while the band I9 in the rearpiece is being knitted By reinforcement in this manner, the bands I8 to2l are heavier and more closely knitted. They impart the properelasticity to the garment and form an effective vsupporter in the frontpiece. The support is thus knit in as an integral part of the frontpiece. In addition, the reinforced portions cooperate to retain thedesired shape of the garmentf'as a whole while permitting of the desiredlooseness and fullness in the other portions.

Instead of forming the supporter band I9 with straight horizontal walesand a flat bottom edge I5, the knee-racking action may be continued.j'clear to the vertical center line of the front and rear pieces andthe reinforcing yarn added in any selected portion. In such a case, theWales on opposite sides of the front pieces would converge to points 28of intersection at the center of the piece as shown in Fig. 8. Thus, theinclined edges I3 and I4 would extend clear to the point 29 ofintersection. The elastic yarn 2'I would, of course, be knit into thecentral part to form the band or supporter as indicated by the shading.In order to avoid the necessity of cutting off the pointed end informing the crotch seam, the racking would, during knitting of the rearpiece, be carried on in such a manner as to form a V-notch at thecenterpoi its lower edge. This notch would be complemental to andinterfit with the pointed end on the front section so that the twoselvage edges may be sewed together forming a V-shaped seam 30.

With the construction above described, it is possible to very quicklyand economically knit the front and rear portions as integral unitarypieces,

9,220,279A wales at an incline controlled by the amount of each or bothin one continuous operation. No

subsequent cutting of the pieces or building in of a supporter arenecessary. 'I'he only subsequent operations which need be performed arelthe sewing up of the sides of the garment and the lower ends of thesupporter loop reinforcing sections to form the crotch. Despite thissimplificationof manufacturing procedure, a garment is provided which-keepslts shape well and which affords good support to the wearer.Further-,- more, the waist band fl-ts snugly about the wearers waistsothat no belt is required and any tendency for the sides of the trunks tocreep or roll up along the wearers legs is reduced to a minimum.

The incorporation of the garment reinforcements into the fabric of thegarment itself results not only in a simplification of construction,

but also gives the trunks a pleasing appearance.v

The differentiation in appearance between the reinforced andunreinforced sections of the trunks has been disproportionatelyemphasized in the drawings in order to make clear the location of thereinforced sections. In the actual garment, the presence of thereinforcing strands is almost imperceptible, the principal difference ofappear- 'ance in the reinforcing sections being due only to the factthat the stitches have an appearance of beingesomewhat more tightlyknitted than in the remainder of the garment.

Although a particular embodiment and application of the invention havebeen shown and described in some detail, there is no intention tothereby limit the invention to such embodiment or application, but onthe other hand, the appended claims are intended to cover allmodifications in structure falling within Ithe spirit and scope of theinvention.

I claim as my invention:

1. A trunk type garment embodying front and back portions each of whichis made of a continuous piece of knitted fabric having integrallyincorporated into the fabric itself a reinforced section extending alongthe top edge thereof and a similarly formed supporter section extendingdownwardly through the crotch and to the centers of the front and rearportions of said reinforced top edge.

` 2. A trunk type garment embodying a front piece made of a continuouspiece of knittedfabrc having integrally incorporated into the fabric itand including one reinforced portion extending about the top thereof toform a Waist band, another reinforcing portion forming a supporter loopdepending from the waist band and other reinforced portions along thelateral side edges of the trunks all of said reinforced portions of thegarment being formed by knitting additional resilient reinforcingstrands into the selected areas of the trunk.

4. A pair of -trunks embodying front and baci: layers of knitted fabricsecured together at their side edges, each of said layers of fabrichaving a T-shaped reinforced section therein integrally incorporatedinto the fabric itself with the horizontal leg of each T lying along thetop edge to form a waist band, the lower ends of the vertical legs ofthe Ts being secured together to complete a supporter loop extendingthrough the crotch of the garment, at least one of said layers of fabricalso having reinforcing extending along the side marginal edges thereofand integrally incorporated into the fabric itself.

5. A trunk type of garment having a front portion knitted as acontinuous piece and comprising a reinforced waist band and reinforcedvertical bands at the center and along the side edges thereof, theportions of the fabric below said waist band and adjacent said sidebands being unreinforced and racked to incline the wales thereofrelative to said waist band and define inclinedselvage edges at thelower endsof the trunk legs.

6. A trunk type of garment having a front portion knitted as acontinuouspiece and comprising a waist band and a supporter band havingelasticyarn knitted into the stitches thereof to reinforce the same, theside-portions of said piece being knee-racked relative to said waistband so asto define selvage edges along the bottom of said piececonverging toward the centr of 'the piece and away from the waist band.

7.' A trunk type of garment having front and rear portions knitted asintegral pieces and having a reinforced waist band and verticalreinforcing bands at the hip sides of the garment and at the centers ofsaid pieces, the wales of said bands extending horizontally, thesections of said pieces between said vertical bands being kneeracked andhaving wales converging toward said central bands and away from saidwaist band.

8. A trunk type of garment having front and rear portions knitted asintegral pieces and having a reinforced waist band and verticalreinforcing bands at the hip sides of the garment, the wales of saidbands extending horizontally, and the sections of the fabric betweensaid vertical bands being knee-racked and having wales convergingdownwardly and toward each other. and reinforcing material knit into thecentral portion 40 of said front piece so as to form a supporter.

9. A trunk type of garment comprising front and rear portions knitted asintegral pieces defining a selvage edged waist band along the topmargins with the wales thereof extending generally horizontally, thestitches forming the opposite margin of said pieces being rackedrelative to said waist band to form selvage edges converging to a crotchat the center of said portions with the wales correspondingly inclinedrelative to said waist band.

10. A trunk type of garment comprising front and rear portions joined attheir vertical margins and at the center of the bottom to form a waistopening and leg openings on opposite sides of a crotch, each of saidportions being knit as an integral piece with the wales thereofextending lengthwise of the edges of said openings and with selvage'edges .dening the leg openings and diverging' awaygfrom the waistopening toward said crotch.

11. A trunk type garment comprising front and rear portions joinedtogether to form a waist opening and leg openings on opposite sides of acrotch, each of saidportions being knit as an integral piece with walesextending parallel to said openings and with a selvage edge definingsaid first opening, and other selvage edges denn- -ing said leg openingsand converging toward said crotch vand away from said iirst edge.

12. A trunk type Vgarment comprising front and rear portions definingwaist and leg openings and each knit as an in-tegral piece with walesextending parallel to said openings having selvage edges defining saidleg openings and converging toward each other and away from said waistopening, and a thread knit intovselected parts only of said portions toform a reinforced waist band around said waist opening and a. verticallyextending supporter band in said-front portion.

WALTER E. RALSTON.

